Louisville victory capped amazing tournament

Cardinals exit Big East with big championship

By Dwight CollinsColumnist

Published: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 12:11 a.m.

Seldom do you find something — anything — that lives up to the absolute ceiling of the hype that accompanies a large national or global sporting event.
The Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos used to regularly kill our Super Bowl Sundays until John Elway got things together at the very end of his career.
The Southeastern Conference has turned the BCS Championship game into its own personal playground for more than a half-dozen years now, reducing some of the country's blue-blood programs into rubble after a month of annual buildup that can only be compared to Gabbo's unsustainable show of force during his failed attempt to supplant Krusty the Klown as Springfield's favorite afternoon television option.
Boxing has become a hodge-podge of lucrative mismatches since some of the sport's top talent can line up two tomato cans a year and avoid the brain-bruising bouts that made Ali, Frazier and Foreman famous.
Rarely do we not know who is going to win the NBA title by Valentine's Day.
But Monday's Louisville victory over Michigan gave viewers a thrill ride in a fitting conclusion to the three weeks known as March Madness.
From the Kevin Ware drama as the tournament unfolded in the injured Cardinal's home metro area, to the Wolverines showing what can happen if you hypnotize players named Spike and Stauskas and tell them the hoop is the size of a dumpster when they're standing behind the 3-point line, this tournament was perhaps the very best I've ever witnessed.
For a week, everyone learned where Florida Gulf Coast University is located ... and what happens to its basketball team when the FGCU student body simultaneously tugs on Superman's cape while spitting into the wind on its way to Dallas.
Andy Enfield boarded a meteor from Fort Myers to USC within the parameters of the same tournament that made him famous, leaving us to wonder can FGCU capture such a moment ever again? And, will anyone remember him when the Trojans are locked inside the L.A. sports pages between the Ducks and Preps, and underneath USC football and UCLA basketball?
Before now, Enfield only needed to battle Manatee World and the Red Sox and Twins of spring training for top billing in his local market. It will be an interesting episode.
By tournament's end, when Louisville cut down the Georgia Dome nets, the Big East had its latest shining moment during its final season as the behemoth we have watched evolve into the best basketball conference we've ever seen.
How good?
Evidently, one season of practice at Providence and the Big East will get you into an NBA Draft conversation.
The Friars produced some massive talent back in the day, from Hall of Famers Lenny Wilkens and John Thompson and a No. 1 overall pick — the late Jimmy Walker — in the 1960s to the dynamic duo of Marvin Barnes and Ernie Digregorio during the early 1970s, to eventual two-time NCAA champion coach Billy Donovan running the show for the now-two-time NCAA champ Rick Pitino during the 1980s before the two moved in tandem to the New York Knicks.
There was Otis Thorpe, who had a long and fruitful NBA career and Austin Croshere, Eric Williams and Marty Conlon, who had, mmm, NBA careers. More recently, there have been Ryan Gomes and Marshon Brooks.
Ricky Ledo, a 6-foot-6 guard, from the Rhode Island prep ranks was thought to be the next big thing in Providence basketball, but instead will enter the NBA Draft after a season in which he practiced, but never played. Ledo was academically ineligible to particpate last season, but created enough buzz in practice to be relocated by NBA radars that first tracked him as a 16-year-old.
This is Providence, not the UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, Georgetown or Villanova that have won NCAA titles.
Tough conference!
RANDOM THOUGHT: Bo Jackson says he doubts Auburn did all the things Selena Roberts wrote about. Good enough for me! Case closed.
-----Dwight Collins can be reached at dwight.collins@starbanner.com.

Seldom do you find something — anything — that lives up to the absolute ceiling of the hype that accompanies a large national or global sporting event.
The Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos used to regularly kill our Super Bowl Sundays until John Elway got things together at the very end of his career.
The Southeastern Conference has turned the BCS Championship game into its own personal playground for more than a half-dozen years now, reducing some of the country's blue-blood programs into rubble after a month of annual buildup that can only be compared to Gabbo's unsustainable show of force during his failed attempt to supplant Krusty the Klown as Springfield's favorite afternoon television option.
Boxing has become a hodge-podge of lucrative mismatches since some of the sport's top talent can line up two tomato cans a year and avoid the brain-bruising bouts that made Ali, Frazier and Foreman famous.
Rarely do we not know who is going to win the NBA title by Valentine's Day.
But Monday's Louisville victory over Michigan gave viewers a thrill ride in a fitting conclusion to the three weeks known as March Madness.
From the Kevin Ware drama as the tournament unfolded in the injured Cardinal's home metro area, to the Wolverines showing what can happen if you hypnotize players named Spike and Stauskas and tell them the hoop is the size of a dumpster when they're standing behind the 3-point line, this tournament was perhaps the very best I've ever witnessed.
For a week, everyone learned where Florida Gulf Coast University is located ... and what happens to its basketball team when the FGCU student body simultaneously tugs on Superman's cape while spitting into the wind on its way to Dallas.
Andy Enfield boarded a meteor from Fort Myers to USC within the parameters of the same tournament that made him famous, leaving us to wonder can FGCU capture such a moment ever again? And, will anyone remember him when the Trojans are locked inside the L.A. sports pages between the Ducks and Preps, and underneath USC football and UCLA basketball?
Before now, Enfield only needed to battle Manatee World and the Red Sox and Twins of spring training for top billing in his local market. It will be an interesting episode.
By tournament's end, when Louisville cut down the Georgia Dome nets, the Big East had its latest shining moment during its final season as the behemoth we have watched evolve into the best basketball conference we've ever seen.
How good?
Evidently, one season of practice at Providence and the Big East will get you into an NBA Draft conversation.
The Friars produced some massive talent back in the day, from Hall of Famers Lenny Wilkens and John Thompson and a No. 1 overall pick — the late Jimmy Walker — in the 1960s to the dynamic duo of Marvin Barnes and Ernie Digregorio during the early 1970s, to eventual two-time NCAA champion coach Billy Donovan running the show for the now-two-time NCAA champ Rick Pitino during the 1980s before the two moved in tandem to the New York Knicks.
There was Otis Thorpe, who had a long and fruitful NBA career and Austin Croshere, Eric Williams and Marty Conlon, who had, mmm, NBA careers. More recently, there have been Ryan Gomes and Marshon Brooks.
Ricky Ledo, a 6-foot-6 guard, from the Rhode Island prep ranks was thought to be the next big thing in Providence basketball, but instead will enter the NBA Draft after a season in which he practiced, but never played. Ledo was academically ineligible to particpate last season, but created enough buzz in practice to be relocated by NBA radars that first tracked him as a 16-year-old.
This is Providence, not the UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, Georgetown or Villanova that have won NCAA titles.
Tough conference!
<b>RANDOM THOUGHT: </b>Bo Jackson says he doubts Auburn did all the things Selena Roberts wrote about. Good enough for me! Case closed.
-----<BR>
<i>Dwight Collins can be reached at dwight.collins@starbanner.com.</i>